Background
He was born in Bodø and died in Oslo.
journalist athletics competitor
He was born in Bodø and died in Oslo.
When Norwegian athletics was split in a bourgeois camp and a Workers" Confederation of Sports, Helgesen eventually chose to move to the workers" club IF Rollo.
He represented the sports club Bodø og Omegns IF, then IK Tjalve after moving to Oslo. This was a Norwegian record at the time. At the 1924 Summer Olympics he finished eighth in the high jump final with a jump of 1.83 metres.
Besides active sports he was sports editor of Arbeiderbladet from 1928 to 1973.
He was also a jury member for awarding the.
His personal best jump was 1.91 metres, achieved in September 1925 in Moss. He became Norwegian champion in 1926 with a tied championship record of 1.90 metres. He also won national silver medals in 1924 and 1925. In the standing high jump he won a bronze medal in 1923, silver in 1928 and gold in 1924, 1925, 1926 and 1927. After joining the workers" movement he won the high jump at the 1928 Spartakiad.
He was a board member of the Norwegian Athletics Association from 1945 through 1948.